California Center for Sustainable Energy

The MAAC Project of San Diego is on a mission – to create sustainable families and communities while preserving the environment. This is a visionary undertaking for a nonprofit organization that focuses on bridging the path to self-sufficiency for low- and moderate-income families through nutritional and home improvement programs, affordable housing complexes, recovery homes, a charter school and other services -- one that MAAC takes seriously.

Since 1978, the nonprofit has provided weatherization services for low-income families in San Diego County to help reduce heating and cooling costs by improving the energy efficiency of their homes and ensuring their health and safety. MAAC’s leadership believes sustainable energy is key to our future. Believing that solar power should be accessible to everyone, MAAC is in the process of installing rooftop solar panels on each of its affordable housing developments, with plans to expand to all of its locations, to improve the energy efficiency of the organization’s affordable housing and schools while reducing its carbon footprint.

MAAC provides a spectrum of unique programs designed to assist clients by engaging them in the enhancement of their own lives through lifestyle changes. MAAC’s “going green” projects include providing renewable energy job opportunities to low-income communities that would otherwise not be available. Its Green Careers Training Program targets unemployed residents of the greater Logan Heights communities in South Bay San Diego County, to create a skilled workforce in the renewable energy sector. The project combines on-the-job training, employment readiness, job placement and other supportive services. Participants will have the ability to consider careers in three promising “green” sectors: home energy assessment, sustainable landscaping and residential/commercial retrofit.

MAAC serves over 35,000 individuals per year and over the past 45 years has touched the lives of more than 1,000,000 clients.

CCSE salutes the MAAC project for supplying this critical life-line that helps individuals and families create sustainable futures – and preserve the environment.

If you would like to help support one of San Diego's most distinguished and comprehensive social service agencies, you can attend the “MAAC to the Future” gala slated for Saturday, Sept. 18, at Loews Coronado Bay Resort. For information and tickets, call (619) 235-4542 or visit the MAAC website.

Continue reading September's newsletter.